Social & Community Services (SACS) Pay Rates

SACS wages have been subject to an Equal Remuneration Order which gradually increased wages over 9 years to address gender pay usage. The rates you see today include this ERO component. Confused about your level? Use the Job Classifier.

Ordinary hours under the SCHADS Award are 38 per week for full-time employees. The way the 38-hour threshold interacts with overtime depends on employment type (cl.28.1):

• Part-time and casual (cl.28.1(b)(i)): the weekly 38h cap triggers overtime when exceeded. First band hours go at time-and-a-half; double time applies thereafter. cl.28.1(b)(ii) adds a separate >10h-on-any-single-day trigger that can stack with the weekly flag.
• Full-time (cl.28.1(a)): overtime is per-day against the rostered ordinary hours for that shift, not against a weekly cap. A full-time employee rostered for 38 hours who works 38.5h only triggers overtime if they exceeded their rostered hours on a specific shift, not because they passed a weekly total.

The OT band itself differs by stream. SACS and crisis accommodation = **first 3 hours at time-and-a-half, then double time** (cl.28.1(a)(ii)). Disability services and home care = first 2 hours at time-and-a-half, then double time (cl.28.1(a)(i)). Sunday excess is paid at double time; public holiday excess at double-and-a-half.

Day-of-week penalty rates (FT/PT) under cl.26.1: Saturday 150%, Sunday 200%. The public holiday rate is 250% under cl.34.2(a) — "double time and a half". Casuals receive the same penalties inclusive of the 25% casual loading:

• Saturday casual: 175% (cl.26.4(a))
• Sunday casual: 225% (cl.26.4(b))
• Public holiday casual: 275% (cl.34.2(d))

Shift loadings under cl.29.3 add 12.5% for an afternoon shift (finishing after 8pm and at or before midnight Mon–Fri) and 15% for a night shift (finishing after midnight or starting before 6am Mon–Fri). These are not stacked with weekend or public holiday rates — cl.26.2 substitutes weekend rates for the shift premiums, and cl.34.2(b) substitutes the PH penalty for both. A Saturday night shift attracts 150%, not 150% + 15%.

NDIS providers often run both centre-based community services and home care from the same business, and the temptation is to use one payroll configuration for everyone. The SCHADS Award draws material distinctions between the streams. A Level 3 home care worker and a Level 3 SACS worker have different role expectations, and misclassifying between streams can mean paying the wrong base rate.

The allowance triggers are also different. Sleepovers are predominantly a SACS/SIL issue. Broken shifts are predominantly a home care issue (because home care frequently rosters morning and evening visits with an unpaid gap in between). A one-size-fits-all payroll configuration ends up either paying allowances that don't apply or failing to trigger ones that do. Each stream needs the correct base rate, appropriate allowance triggers, the right minimum engagement rule, and the right OT band applied to the shift patterns typical to that service type.

A SACS part-time worker is contracted for 30 ordinary hours per week. In one week, they pick up extra shifts and finish on 41 ordinary hours. Because they're part-time, the cl.28.1(b)(i) weekly cap applies: the 3-hour excess over 38h triggers overtime. Under the SACS band (cl.28.1(a)(ii)), all 3 of those overage hours fall in the first-3-hours band, so each is paid at time-and-a-half. If the excess had been 5 hours, the first 3 would be at 150% and the last 2 at 200%.

If those overage hours happen to fall on a Sunday already at 200%, the Sunday penalty loading already covers the OT premium. The technical breach of the 38h cap still exists (it's still a FAIL in compliance terms), but the practical underpayment exposure may be reduced or fully offset by the Sunday rate already paid.